Monitoring and Mangement of Distributing Information Systems

1. A method of managing a computing system, which comprises a plurality of managed resources, the method comprising the following computer-implemented steps of: providing a knowledge base comprising a data structure embodying a system model, the data structures representing available status data of the managed resources and one or more system performance indicators; generating transaction requests in accordance with a transaction profile of the system, said transaction requests being provided for processing by the system; collecting the status data of the managed resources of the system in accordance with the system model stored in the knowledge base; computing values of the system performance indicators based upon the collected status data; detecting a degradation in performance of the system by comparing the computed value of at least one of the system performance indicators with a corresponding expected value; and in response to said detecting, generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred, to allow the status data and performance indicators to be analysed at the time at which said performance degradation occurs, wherein the system model defines the most appropriate status data to be collected from the managed resources in order to monitor the managed resources, without imposing any generic object model or set of abstractions upon the managed resources; wherein the system model further defines each of the one or more system performance indicators as a function of the status data and/or other system performance indicators; and wherein the step of detecting a degradation in performance of the system comprises identifying a change in state of the evaluation of an arithmetic or Boolean expression associated with said at least one system performance indicator.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of collecting status data comprises collecting performance data relating to said managed resources.

3. The method according to either claim 1 wherein the step of generating transaction requests comprises generating requests to applications, shared services, communications services and/or access services.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the transaction profile is representative of actual operations performed by or on behalf of users of the computing system in accessing information services provided by the system, such that the performance of the system in response to the generated transaction requests reflects actual performance experienced by end users.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of generating transaction requests comprises generating said requests from user terminals of the computing system, such that the monitored transaction performance of the system comprises the performance of resources that are local to the user terminals.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the expected value of said at least one system performance indicator is determined by measuring the transaction performance of the system for a period of time under normal operating conditions.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the knowledge base is hierarchically structured, wherein the status data is represented at a lowest level of the hierarchy, and derived system performance indicators are represented at higher levels so as to provide an increasing degree of abstraction.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of collecting status data comprises obtaining the status data from the managed resources of the system using one or more protocols selected from the following group: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP); File Transfer Protocol (FTP); Open Database Connectivity (ODBC); Remote Procedure Call (RPC): Remote Shell (RSH); Secure Shell (SSH); Telnet; CSV.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of collecting status data comprises repeatedly collecting status data at predetermined and substantially regular intervals, such that each item of status data has an associated resolution period that is equal to the corresponding collection interval.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein each said system performance indicator has an associated resolution period that is appropriate to the nature of the system performance indicator, and wherein the step of computing values of the system performance indicators comprises calculating values of each system performance indicator at predetermined substantially regular intervals corresponding with said resolution period.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein, in the event that a system performance indicator resolution period is equal to or greater than a multiple of one or more status data resolution periods upon which it depends, the system performance indicator is calculated using a minimum, maximum or average of the corresponding status data values.

12. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the computer-implemented step of performing an initial baseline measurement of status data values and system performance indicators in order to determine nominal values data and system performance indicators corresponding with an expected performance of the system.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the step of computing values of the system performance indicators of the system comprises computing normalised values of status data and system performance indicators, said normalised values being values of said status data and system performance indicators relative to the nominal values determined by the baseline measurement.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred comprises generating an alarm or alert to an operator of the computing system.

15. The method according to claim 1 wherein an action is initiated comprising conducting a Root Cause Analysis in order to identify a cause of the detected degradation in system performance.

16. The method according to claim 15 wherein the Root Cause Analysis comprises differentiating the knowledge base against a baseline measurement corresponding with the expected performance of the system, in order to determine a rat of change of the normalised status data values and system performance indicators such that status data values and/or system performance indicators that have large or otherwise abnormal rates of change are identified.

17. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the computer-implemented step of monitoring the system to determine whether it is operating within a safe operating area, and generating a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred only when operation of the system is within said safe operating area.

18. An apparatus for managing a computer system which comprises a plurality of managed resources, the apparatus comprising: a knowledge base comprising a data structure embodying a system model, the data structures representing available status data of the managed resources and one or more system performance indicators; a processing unit; computer readable storage media have computer readable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processing unit, cause the apparatus to generate transaction requests in accordance with a transaction profile of the system, said transaction request being provided for processing by the system; collect the status data of the managed resources of the system in accordance with the system model; compute values of the system performance indicators based upon the collected status data; detect a degradation in performance of the system by comparing the computed value of at least one of the system performance indicators with a corresponding expected value; and generate a signal to indicate that a degradation in performance has occurred, when a degradation in performance is detected, wherein the system model defines the most appropriate status data to be collected from the managed resources in order to monitor the managed resources, without imposing any generic object model or set of abstractions upon the managed resources; wherein the system model further defines each of the one or more system performance indicators as a function of the status data and/or other system performance indicators; and wherein causing the apparatus to detect the degradation in performance of the system comprises identifying a change in state of the evaluation of an arithmetic or Boolean expression associated with said at least one system performance indicator.

19. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein causing the apparatus to generate transaction requests includes executing one or more communication protocols for generating requests to applications, shared services, communications services and/or access services.

20. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 19 wherein said protocols are selected from the group of Internet protocols including of: TCP; UDP; HTTP; FTP; SMTP; DNS; ARP.

21. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to either claim 19 wherein causing the apparatus to generate transaction requests includes executing remote procedure calls to direct managed elements within the system to generate transaction requests.

22. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein causing the apparatus to detect a degradation in performance comprises measuring the time taken by the system to process transaction requests, and comparing the measured time with expected times held within a memory store.

23. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 22 wherein said expected times are obtained from measurements of transaction performance of the system conducted over a period of time under normal operating conditions of the system, the results of said measurements being stored within the memory store for later comparison with the results of subsequent measurements of transaction performance.

24. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein causing the apparatus to collect status data includes executing one or more communications protocols for communicating with managed resources of the system to retrieve status data therefrom.

25. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 24 wherein the protocols which collect status data executes are selected from the group consisting of: SNMP; FTP; ODBC; RPC; RSH; SSH; Telnet; CSV.

26. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 further comprising a scheduler component executable by the processing unit and stored on the computer readable storage media for scheduling the collection of status data at predetermined substantially regular intervals.

27. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein causing the apparatus to compute values of the system performance indicators includes executing one or more periodic tasks that recompute each of the performance indicators in accordance with an associated resolution period, and store the computed values within a memory store.

28. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein the computer readable storage media has further computer readable instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processing unit, cause the apparatus to perform at least one action when a degradation in system performance has been detected.

29. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 28 further including a Root Cause Analysis component executable by the processing unit and stored on the computer readable storage media, and wherein said at least one action comprising executing the Root Cause Analysis to perform an analysis to identify a cause of the detected degradation in system performance.

30. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 29 wherein the Root Cause Analysis component when executed by the processing unit differentiates collected status data and/or determined performance indicators against stored baseline measurements representing a nominal performance of the system, in order to identify status data and/or performance indicators that have large or abnormal rates of change.

31. The apparatus for managing a computer system according to claim 18 wherein the knowledge base is hierarchically structured such that status data is represented at a lowest level of the hierarchy, and derived performance indicators are represented at higher levels, and with an increasing degree of abstraction.

32. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed on a computer, implement a method according to claim 1 .